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Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the
encounter with Imperator Mar'gok in Highmaul. It is targeted at anyone
who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Imperator Mar'gok is the final boss in the Highmaul raid instance. This is a
long, 4-phase encounter (in addition to which there are also 2 transition
phases). Throughout the fight, Mar'gok will use the same abilities, albeit
slightly modified in each phase.

1. General Information

1.1. Normal and Heroic Difficulty

This guide covers both the Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter, as
far as mechanics and general strategy is concerned. The only difference between
these two modes is found in the tuning, with Heroic being more difficult.

When we speak of extreme situations (such as the difficulty of a soft
enrage timer, or damage from a certain source being too high to survive), we
mostly refer to Heroic mode.

1.2. Enrage Timer

The hard enrage timer for this encounter is 15 minutes. There are no soft
enrage mechanics as such, but the final phase of the fight is very intense, and your raid will not be able to survive it for long.

2. Summing Things Up

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging
to each of the three roles have to do during this fight. This is by no means
meant to provide sufficient information to master the encounter, and it is only
supposed to give you a very rough idea of what to watch out for.

2.1. Tanks

Perform a tank switch on the boss whenever Mark of Chaos is
cast. The tank affected by Mark of Chaos must move away from other raid
members. This is not possible during Phase Three, when the rest of the
raid must move away from them.

During Phases One, Two, and Three, the tanks should perform the same
tank switch on the boss. The off-tank must still tank the Arcane
Aberrations.

During the Transition Phases, tank the Volatile Anomalies next
to the main targets (the Gorian Warmages in the First Transition Phase,
and the Gorian Reaver in the Second Transition Phase), so that they can be
cleaved.

During the Cho'gall phase, one tank will have to tank Cho'gall along the
outside of the room (moving him whenever Night-Twisted Faithfuls leave
behind void zones), while the other tank should tank the Night-Twisted
Faithfuls in range of Cho'gall.

Make sure to heal the tanks a lot when they are tanking many adds at once
(such as during the transition phases, or during Phase Four). Be
particularly careful when Mar'gok has high stacks of
Accelerated Assault.

In Mythic Mode

During Phases One, Two, and Three, pay special attention to
Force Nova casts, as there can be extreme raid damage at this
time.

During the Cho'gall phase, make sure to heal the
Gaze of the Abyss soakers. Whenever players are affected by
Infinite Darkness, heal them as much as possible for the duration
of the effect.

2.3. DPS

Kill the Arcane Aberrations as soon as they spawn. During
Phase Four, you will probably be able to ignore the resulting Arcane
Remnants.

During the transition phases, focus on killing the Gorian Reaver
and the Gorian Warmages, before finishing off the
Volatile Anomalies. When killing Volatile Anomalies, make sure no
raid members are very low on health, since they deal raid-wide damage on
death.

In Mythic Mode

During the transition phases, a few melee DPS players should focus on
cleaving the Volatile Anomalies that are being tanked next to the
Gorian Warmages or to the Gorian Reaver, respectively.

During the Cho'gall phase, only DPS Cho'gall, leaving just incidental
cleave damage to kill the Night-Twisted Faithfuls that are being
tanked with him. However, at the very beginning of the Cho'gall phase,
when their boss is active, you should focus full-time on killing the first
group of Night-Twisted Faithfuls that spawns.

2.4. Everyone

If affected by one of the later jumps of a
Arcane Wrath debuff, move far out of the raid.

In Mythic Mode

During Phases One, Two, and Three, pay special attention to minimising
the damage taken from Force Nova, and to placing the
Destructive Resonance void zones in such a way as to ensure that they
do not take up too much space.

During the Cho'gall phase, a few players will be assigned to soaking the
Gaze of the Abyss casts of the shadowy copies created by
Glimpse of Madness. If you are not assigned to this task, make sure
to keep your distance from the shadowy copies. Also, players should move
away from the ball of dark energy created by Dark Star.

3. Overview of the Fight

The Imperator Mar'gok encounter is a 4-phase fight during which you fight
the boss, and several types of adds. In addition to the main 4 phases, there
are also 2 transition phases. We present the layout of the phases below.

Phase One lasts from 100% to 85% of Mar'gok's health.

Phase Two lasts from 85% to 55% of Mar'gok's health.

The First Transition Phase lasts for 1 minute after the end of Phase
Two.

Phase Three lasts from 55% of Mar'gok's health (end of the First
Transition Phase) to 25% of Mar'gok's health.

The Second transition Phase lasts for 1 minute after the end of Phase
Three.

Phase Four lasts from 25% of Mar'gok's health (end of the Second
Transition Phase) to Mar'gok's death.

While it might appear that the fight is extremely complicated, this is not
really the case. Mar'gok uses largely the same abilities throughout the fight.
In Phase One, he uses a basic form of his set of abilities, which are then
modified in each of the other 3 phases. The two transition phases are also very
similar, with the only real difference being the addition of another type of
add in the Second Transition Phase.

We have released a video preview of the encounter against Imperator Mar'gok,
based on our (Heroic) Beta testing. You can watch this video to get a good
idea of how the fight works, but keep in mind that some things can still change
before the fight goes live.

4. Phase One: Might of the Crown

Phase One lasts until Mar'gok reaches 85% health, and it mainly serves
the purpose of establishing the basic forms of the abilities he will use
throughout the rest of the fight.

4.1. Abilities

Mar'gok uses the following abilities against your raid.

Accelerated Assault is a stacking buff that Mar'gok applies to
himself each time he performs consecutive attacks against the same target.
Each stack of the buff increases Mar'gok's attack speed by 8%. This ability
requires a tank switch, and it remains the same in Phases Two, Three,
and Four.

Mark of Chaos is an 8-second debuff that Mar'gok applies to his
tank. While active, the debuff does nothing, but when it expires, it causes
the affected player to deal a very high amount of Arcane damage to all
allies within 35 yards. This ability requires a tank switch.

Arcane Wrath is an ability that Mar'gok uses throughout the fight.
He targets a random raid member, placing a 4-second debuff on them. When the
debuff expires, the affected player takes a high amount of Arcane damage,
and the debuff jumps to their closest ally within 200 yards. On this new
player, the debuff is essentially reset, lasting 4-seconds once again and
dealing damage when it expires. With each jump, the damage of Arcane Wrath
increases by 25%, but the range within which it jumps to a new player decreases
by 50%. The number of jumps is indicated in the form of stacks that the
debuff gains (so, the second person to have the debuff will have it with 2
stacks, the third person will have it with 3 stacks, and so on).

Destructive Resonance is an ability that Mar'gok uses throughout
the fight. He places an Arcane mine at the location of a random raid member,
which persists for 1
minute. At the end of the 1 minute, the mine despawns harmlessly. However, if
a player comes in contact with it, it will explode, dealing high raid-wide
Arcane damage, and very high Arcane damage to the player who triggered it.
Moreover, the player who triggers a Destructive Resonance mine is debuffed
for 1 minute to take 45% increased Arcane damage, and to be stunned for 1.5
seconds each time they take Arcane damage.

Force Nova is an ability that Mar'gok uses throughout the fight.
A ground effect radiates outward from the boss. The edge of the nova damages
players who are in contact with it for a moderate amount of Arcane damage
every 0.5 seconds.

Throughout the phase, Mar'gok will summon Arcane Aberrations, one
at a time. This is a regular add which can be tanked normally, and whose only
ability is Collapsing Entity. This causes the Arcane Aberrations to
pulse raid-wide Arcane damage every second while they are alive. Throughout
phases Two, Three, and Four the Aberrations gain a new ability or property,
but they always retain Collapsing Entity.

4.2. Strategy

Phase One does not last very long at all, so it is pointless to talk about
a strategy for it. Instead, we will simply mention how each of the abilities
should be dealt with. As we will see, this knowledge is important, because you
will build on it in subsequent phases, when the abilities change slightly.

Your tanks will have to perform a tank switch. The ideal moment for this
seems to be when the tank is debuffed with Mark of Chaos, since this
tank has to get 35 yards away from all other raid members. At this time, the
other tank should taunt off them, which will also reset the boss' stacks of
Accelerated Assault. As soon as the player who had Mark of Chaos has
gotten rid of their debuff, they can return to the boss.

Whenever an Arcane Aberration spawns, it will have to be picked up
by a tank and quickly killed by your DPS players. Healers should beware of the
raid damage during this time.

The idea for handling Force Nova is that all raid members should try
to spend as little time as possible in contact with the edge of the nova. In
most cases, this simply means that they should run forward into it, so that
they only take one or two ticks. Some classes can do even better (such as
Mages who can Blink forward).

Finally, the most complex ability to deal with in this phase is
Arcane Wrath. The idea is that, since the range at which the debuff
can jump decreases with each jump, it will eventually drop. We advise you to
aim at letting the debuff drop on the 4th jump, when it can jump only to
players within 25 yards. Follow these steps.

As soon as the debuff is applied to a player, they should move out
of the raid and another player should accompany them. Both players should be DPS players.

Let the debuff jump 3 times between the two players.

After the third jump, the player with the debuff should be topped
off (because the debuff deals a lot of damage) and should move away
from the raid even more, while the other player should go back to the
raid.

The debuff will drop because there will be no one within 25 yards
of the afflicted player.

5. Phase Two: Rune of Displacement

Phase Two lasts until Mar'gok reaches 55% health. When this happens, Mar'gok
becomes immune and your raid enters the First Transition Phase.

5.1. Abilities

Throughout this phase, Mar'gok will use the same abilities as he uses in
Phase One, but each one will be slightly modified. The theme of the
modifications in this phase is displacement.

When Arcane Wrath: Displacement affects a player, a 10-yard radius
around them is marked, and they are not allowed to leave that area while the
debuff is active. Attempting to leave it will cause them to be teleported
back inside.

5.2. Strategy

The changes to abilities alter the Phase One strategy somewhat, but overall things do not change drastically.

The tank swap will still happen as usual, but the tank who is affected by
Mark of Chaos: Displacement will have to be very careful, since they will
be teleported in a random location, which may be close to other raid members.
They will have to quickly run to get 35 yards away from all raid members before
their debuff expires.

When the Arcane Aberrations are killed, players will have to be
careful not to get knocked back into any
Destructive Resonance: Displacement mines. This is made somewhat more
difficult by the fact that these mines are now larger in size than in Phase
One. That said, there is no different handling to the mines; they should still
be avoided until they expire.

Dealing with Force Nova: Displacement is not different from Phase One,
but if you are not running forward when the Force Nova reaches you, it will
keep pushing you back and you will always remain at its edge, taking damage.
So, moving forward is imperative. Any abilities that can help with this (such
as Stampeding Roar) are very useful.

As in Phase One, the greatest difficulty comes from dealing with
Arcane Wrath: Displacement. The affected players cannot run away from
other raid members anymore, so it is now up to other raid members to get
clear of them in time. The same strategy as before applies, of having it
make 3 controlled jumps before having everyone far enough away from the
affected player that it cannot jump further.

6. First Transition Phase

When Mar'gok reaches 55% health, he enters the First Transition Phase.
He becomes unattackable, and two Gorian Warmages and several
Volatile Anomalies spawn. This phase lasts 1 minute.

6.1. Abilities

Dominance Aura is a passive ability that buffs all allies within
25 yards, increasing their damage done by 50% and their attack and casting
speed by 50%.

Nether Blast targets a random raid member, dealing high Arcane
damage to them and any other allies within 5 yards. This spell can be
interrupted.

Slow is a debuff applied to a random raid member, reducing
their movement, attack, and casting speed by 50% for 45 seconds. This effect
can be dispelled.

Fixate is an ability that the Warmages cast, which causes
them to fixate on a random raid member for 15 seconds, casting Nether Blast
only on them.

The Volatile Anomalies spawn throughout the phase, one roughly every
12 seconds. They have a
single ability, Destabilize, which causes them to deal a
moderate amount of Arcane damage to all players when they die.

6.2. Strategy

The strategy for this phase is clear out all the adds by the time Mar'gok
enters Phase Three. The main targets are the Gorian Warmages, and your
raid should focus on them. They will spend most of the phase spamming
Nether Blast, so preventing them from getting any cast off is not really
feasible (but you can and should interrupt as many casts as possible).
The best way to handle the Warmages is for your raid to stack up, and heal
through the splash damage of the Nether Blasts. When raid members are fixated
upon by the Warmages (meaning that they will be spammed by Nether Blast), these
players should move out of the stacked raid group. The Slow
debuffs should be dispelled whenever possible.

At the same time, your tanks will have to pick up any
Volatile Anomalies that spawn, and your raid should kill them off. These
are not a high priority, because they stop spawning at the end of the
transition phase, but they should be killed throughout the phase, and not just
at the end, because the raid-wide damage that they deal when they die is
quite high. Alternatively, you can try to kill several (or all) of them at
the end of the phase, using cooldowns to survive. When finishing off Anomalies,
always look at the raid's health, and do not kill them if any players are on
critical health.

7. Phase Three: Rune of Fortification

Phase Three lasts until Mar'gok reaches 25% health. When this happens,
Mar'gok becomes immune once again and your raid enters the Second Transition
Phase.

7.1. Abilities

Throughout this phase, Mar'gok will use the same abilities as he uses in
Phase One, but each one will be slightly modified. The theme of the
modifications in this phase is fortification.

7.2. Strategy

To begin with, you might still have some adds left over from the First
Transition Phase when you enter Phase Three. If this is the case, you should
kill these adds off as quickly as possible.

Throughout Phase Three, you will use mostly the same strategy as before. Your tanks will perform the same tank
switch as always, but now when the tank is affected by
Mark of Chaos: Fortification, the other tank will have to pull Mar'gok
35 yards or more away from them, and the raid will have to move as well, since
the Marked tank cannot move.

Handling the Arcane Aberrations becomes more difficult due to
their Fortified buff. Your DPS players will have to focus on
them more, in order to ensure that each one dies before the new one spawns.

Force Nova: Fortification is not difficult to deal with at all, but
it will result in a bit more raid damage. Players will just have to run forward
as before.

The Destructive Resonance: Fortification mines are now back to their
usual size, but they last for 2 minutes up from 1. This restricts your raid's
movement more, but nothing else changes in how they are to be handled; they
should still be avoided.

As in the other phases, the greatest difficulty comes from handling
Arcane Wrath: Fortification. The fact that its jump range now decreases
by only 25% per jump makes it more difficult to get rid of, and also means
that 6 or 7 jumps will probably be required. This means that the player taking the
last tick will take very high damage, and it is advised that they have a damage
reduction cooldown (either their own or an external one) available.

8.1. Abilities

Devastating Shockwave is an ability that deals very
high Physical damage to players in a 20-yard frontal cone in front of
the Gorian Reaver.

Crush Armor is a stacking debuff that the Gorian Reaver
applies to its tank, increasing their damage taken by 15% for 25 seconds.

Kick to the Face is an ability that the Gorian Reaver uses, which
causes them to deal very high Physical damage to their tank, knocking them
back and resetting their threat.

8.2. Strategy

The strategy for this phase is almost identical to that of the First
Transition Phase, but this phase is much more difficult. Your main priority
should remain the Gorian Warmages, followed by the
Gorian Reaver. The Volatile Anomalies should be killed
throughout the phase so that their detonations are staggered, or,
alternatively, killed together at the end of the phase with defensive
cooldowns.

Note that if you have a lot of ranged interrupts available, it is also
possible to focus on killing the Reaver while preventing as many casts as
possible from the Warmages. This choice should also be made based on what part
of your raid is strained the most. So, if your tank is having a hard time
surviving, focusing on the Reaver first is a good idea, and if the raid is
dying, you should focus on the Warmages.

Tanks will have to make sure that the Gorian Reaver is facing away from any
other raid members, and whenever the Reaver casts Kick to the Face on
his tank, the other tank should taunt him and keep tanking him in the same
location.

9. Phase Four: Rune of Replication

Phase Four lasts until Mar'gok dies.

9.1. Abilities

Throughout this phase, Mar'gok will use the same abilities as he uses in
Phase One, but each one will be slightly modified. The theme of the
modifications in this phase is replication.

When players are damaged by Force Nova: Replication, they also
deal the same damage that they take to any allies within 4 yards of them.

Mark of Chaos: Replication causes 8 Orbs of Chaos to spawn
from the location of the tank affected by Mark of Chaos. These spawn when
the debuff expires, and they move through the room in straight lines, dealing
high Arcane damage to anyone who comes in contact with them, before finally
disappearing.

When the Arcane Aberrations die, they now split into 7 new adds
each, called Arcane Remnants. These adds have no abilities of their own, and
unlike in previous phases, they do not appear to cast
Collapsing Entity.

9.2. Strategy

This final phase of the fight is extremely intense. It will be impossible
for your raid to spend a long time in this phase, because you will not be able
to cope with the large number of adds that spawn each time an
Arcane Aberration dies, or with the reduced space caused by the
many Destructive Resonance: Replication mines.

Tanks will still have to perform the same tank switch as usual on Mar'gok.
The tank who is debuffed by Mark of Chaos: Replication will, as always,
have to get 35 yards away from all other raid members.

A new element appears
here, in the form of the 8 Orbs of Chaos that spawn from the location of
the Marked tank. These orbs will simply have to be avoided as well as possible.
They do not move specifically towards raid members, but some of them will
inevitably cross through the raid. They are slow enough to be avoidable in most
circumstances, and while they deal very high damage, this damage is not fatal
on its own. As long as healers are careful, it should be possible to survive
this.

The Arcane Aberrations should be picked up by the tanks, and DPS
players will have to kill them. The resulting Arcane Remnants do not deal very
much damage, and so they can safely be off-tanked, allowing your raid to focus
on Mar'gok.

The Destructive Resonance: Replication mines should still be
handled as before, in other words ignored and avoided. This will be more
difficult than ever before, since each one that despawns will create two new
ones near it, so you will eventually start to have serious issues with
space.

Force Nova: Replication requires special handling. Essentially, as
players run forward into the nova, they need to do so spread out at least 4
yards apart, and not in a group, as otherwise they will damage each other.
That said, the splash damage from this effect is not high, so a few mistakes
can be tolerated. In particular, melee DPS will generally take a lot of
damage here (since the nova appears at their location making it difficult to
avoid), so healers will have to be prepared for this spike of damage.

Finally, there remains Arcane Wrath: Replication. The fact that the
first jump of each Arcane Wrath places the debuff on two players instead of 1
increases the number of raid members who will take damage from this, and also
means that more people than before will be needed to handle it properly and to
get it out of the raid.

Overall, this final phase is a brutal and chaotic one, where your raid
will do the best they can to handle all the abilities. It is recommended to
save cooldowns for this time.

10. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

We recommend using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
at the start of Phase Four, because this is the most intense period of the
fight.

Alternatively, you may need to use it during the Second Transition Phase,
which in some cases appeared to be as brutal as Phase Four.

11. Mythic Mode

The Mythic mode of the Imperator Mar'gok encounter is by far the most
difficult fight in the entire Highmaul instance. It is an extremely long
and intense fight, which will strain every aspect of your raid to the
fullest.

11.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode

The Mythic mode of the Imperator Mar'gok encounter is initially quite
similar to the Normal/Heroic version (but much more difficult), but at the
end of the fight (when Mar'gok reaches 5% health), Cho'gall joins the fight
and engages the raid as a new boss. In the following sub-sections we will
first look at the mechanics of the Mar'gok part of the encounter, and then we
will look at the Cho'gall part of the encounter.

Aside from these differences, all the mobs in the fight have more health
and deal more damage than in Normal/Heroic mode.

11.1.1. Imperator Mar'gok

There are no new abilities or mechanics while your raid fights Mar'gok,
but there are a few changes to the way that the fight is laid out. There
are now only 3 main phases, and two transition phases, as follows.

Between 100% and 66.67% of Mar'gok's health, he will use his Phase Two
and Phase Four abilities (from Normal/Heroic Mode). In other words, he will
have both the Displacement and Replication versions of abilities active at
once.

At 66.67% health, Mar'gok will enter the First Transition Phase, which
takes place exactly as in Normal/Heroic Mode.

After the First Transition Phase, Mar'gok will use his Phase Two and
Phase Three (Displacement and Fortification) abilities until he reaches 33.33%
health.

At 33.33% health, Mar'gok will enter the Second Transition Phase, which is
also identical to the Normal/Heroic mode version.

After the Second Transition Phase, Mar'gok will use his Phase Three and
Phase Four (Fortification and Replication) abilities until he reaches 5%
health, at which point the Mar'gok part of the encounter ends.

So, throughout this part of the fight, you will face Mar'gok and the same
abilities he was using all throughout the Normal/Heroic versions of the
encounter. Naturally, the difficulty will be far greater since at any given
time, each one of this abilities will be doubly empowered.

On reaching 5% health, Mar'gok will become immune, and a large number of
Night-Twisted Faithful adds will enter the fight. 30 seconds later,
Mar'gok will die and Cho'gall will become active and engage your raid. We
discuss these adds, and Cho'gall, in the following sub-section.

11.1.2. Cho'gall

When Mar'gok reaches 5% health, Cho'gall appears in the room, but he does
not engage your raid immediately (and he cannot be attacked). During this
time, Mar'gok is immune, and a large number of Night-Twisted Faithfuls
attack your raid. 30 seconds after Mar'gok reaches 5% health he dies
permanently, and Cho'gall activates and engages your raid. We discuss
Cho'gall's abilities below.

Glimpse of Madness is an ability Cho'gall uses every 25 seconds.
He creates a shadow copy of a random raid member, which persists until the end
of the fight. These copies are stationary and they cannot be attacked, but they
spam Gaze of the Abyss on the closest raid member within a certain
radius (we are not sure of the size of the radius, but it appears to be
around 10 yards).

Gaze of the Abyss is an uninterruptible cast that applies a stacking
debuff that lasts 10 seconds, and
which deals a high amount of Shadow damage to the target whenever it is
applied. Additionally, each application increases the damage done by Gaze of
the Abyss by 50%. When the debuff expires, it deals a massive amount of Shadow
damage to the affected player, and any other allies within 8 yards.

Enveloping Night is an ability that Cho'gall uses every
60 seconds. The ability detonates any Glimpse of Madness shadow copy that had
at least one of its Gaze of the Abyss casts unsoaked by a raid member in the
time since the previous Enveloping Night. In other words, each Gaze of the
Abyss cast by each shadowy copy has to have a valid target (someone within the
required radius). If at least one Gaze of the Abyss cast does not have a valid
target, then the first cast of Enveloping Night will detonate that shadowy
copy. Detonating a shadowy copy causes it to deal a high amount of raid-wide
Shadow damage. However, the copy will still persist after its detonation, and
it will continue to cast Gaze of the Abyss.

Dark Star is a ball of dark energy that appears at the location of
a random raid member, and which explodes 5 seconds later, dealing massive
Shadow damage in a 25-yard radius.

Infinite Darkness is a debuff that Cho'gall applies on
1-3 random raid members, every 60 seconds. It lasts 45 seconds, and while it
is active, all healing received by
the affected raid members is absorbed. At the end of the debuff's duration,
all the healing absorbed by the players is granted as a 10-second damage
absorption shield, called Entropy, to the entire raid.

Edge of the Void is an ability that Cho'gall seems to use as an
enrage. He affects 5 random areas of the floor every 0.5 seconds for 12
seconds, causing each affected area to deal lethal Shadow damage to any players
in a 6-yard radius 2.5 seconds later.

In addition to these abilities, Cho'gall summons a group of
Night-Twisted Faithfuls every 30 seconds (these are identical to the
ones that spawn when Mar'gok reaches 5% health). These adds melee their main
aggro target for a large amount of damage, and their only other ability is a
permanent void zone that they leave behind at the location where they die.

11.2. Strategy

In the following sub-sections, we will look at each of the 3 main phases of
the fight, at the two transition phases, as well as at the final phase
(the one involving Cho'gall).

11.2.1. Phase One

Between 100% and 66.67% of Mar'gok's health, your raid will have to handle
all of his abilities being empowered both by Displacement and Replication.
It is particularly the Replication version of the abilities that will cause
major issues.

First of all, you will have to come up with an efficient way to handle
the Force Nova casts. In addition to being knocked back, the
Replication element will cause players to deal damage to any other players
hit by Force Nova within 4 yards, which will essentially result in deaths,
given the high amounts of damage. As such, your raid should be prepared to
spread out quickly and efficiently, and to do so in a way that ensures the
healers having to move as little as possible.

Second of all, you will have to be very careful with the management of the
Destructive Resonance void zones, as they will both increase in size
and duplicate when they expire, meaning that the floor can quickly become
covered in them. Whenever the Destructive Resonance void zones are about to be
cast, it is important that players stand as close to existing ones as possible,
so that they spawn as neatly packed together as possible.

Third if all, the entire raid will have to be careful to avoid being hit by
the Orbs of Chaos created by Mark of Chaos, which is made more difficult
by the fact the tank affected by Mark of Chaos is teleported to the location of
a random ranged member when the orbs spawn.

Finally, players will have to manage the Arcane Wrath debuff
correctly. This will prove quite intuitive, since players
affected by Arcane Wrath
are unable to leave their 10-yard radius, due to the Displacement effect,
and Arcane Wrath jumps to 2 players instead of to just 1. This means it is the
raid that will have to move away from the affected players when the debuff is
about to be dropped off, and that this will need to be done with regard to two
different players at once. Still, this can prove to be difficult.

It goes without saying that the tanks should still perform a tank switch
on Mar'gok as usual, and that the Arcane Aberrations and the resulting
Arcane Remnants should be killed.

11.2.2. First Transition Phase

The First Transition Phase is identical to its Normal/Heroic version, except
that the damage and health of the mobs is much higher. The strategy remains
largely the same, but it is highly recommended to interrupt as many casts of
Nether Blast as possible. It is also advised to tank the
Volatile Anomalies close to the Warmages, and to have a few melee
players be focused on killing them throughout the phase.

11.2.3. Phase Two

Phase Two lasts from the end of the First Transition Phase until the boss
reaches 33.33% health. During this phase, you will have to handle Mar'gok's
abilities being empowered both by Displacement and Fortification. This phase is
not as taxing as Phase One, but it is still difficult.

The major challenge your raid will be faced with is that Force Nova
happens 3 times in a row now, in addition to knocking players back each time.
Coupled with the fact that the Destructive Resonance void zones last
twice as long as before (and are still double their normal size), this can
cause severe positioning problems for your raid, if you are not careful as far
as placing the Destructive Resonance void zones is concerned. The same
technique as in Phase One (overlapping them whenever possible) should be
employed.

Dealing with Arcane Wrath is also quite difficult, as in
addition to the player affected by it being unable to move (outside of a
10-yard radius), its jump distance is reduced by 50% less with each jump,
meaning that it is more
difficult to get rid of it. At 6-7 stacks, the ranged group should move away
from the player with Arcane Wrath, and this should ideally cause it to
disappear.

Finally, increased attention will have to be given to the
Arcane Aberrations, whose health is much higher during this phase.

11.2.4. Second Transition Phase

The Second Transition Phase is identical to its Normal/Heroic counterpart.
We advise your raid to focus down the Gorian Warmages, while having
a few raid members attacking the Gorian Reaver, and having the
Volatile Anomalies tanked in range of the Reaver so that they can be
cleaved down with ease.

11.2.5. Phase Three

Phase Three lasts from the end of the Second Transition Phase until Mar'gok
reaches 5% health, at which point he becomes immune. He dies 30 seconds
after that. During this phase, you will have to handle Mar'gok's abilities
being empowered both by Fortification and Replication.

The first thing you will have to watch out for during this phase is that
the tank that is affected by Mark of Chaos will be rooted in place,
and will spawn the Orbs of Chaos. This means that the rest of the raid will
have to move away from the tank, and pay special attention to avoid being hit
by the orbs.

The same kind of positioning constraints regarding
Destructive Resonance exist in this phase as in the previous ones.
The void zones last twice as long as normally, and they duplicate when they
expire, so handling them carefully once again is very important.

The most difficult part of the fight, or at the very least the one that has
the highest potential of getting raid members killed, is dealing with
Force Nova. Force Nova comes in 3 waves now, and also causes affected
players to deal AoE damage in a 4-yard radius. All raid members will once again
(as with Phase One) have to be properly spread out for Force Nova, and this
should be done in such a way that the healers have the least movement to
do.

Finally, there will be difficulty in handling Arcane Wrath
properly, but the way to do so is once again similar as before, and quite
intuitive.

11.2.6. Phase Four (Cho'gall)

As soon as Mar'gok reaches 5% health, a swarm of
Night-Twisted Faithfuls enters the fight. There is nothing else going
on in the encounter at this time (both Mar'gok and Cho'gall are inactive), so
you should focus on the adds and kill them. It is important to kill them out
of the way of the raid, because they leave permanent void zones behind when
they die. The ideal location is the throne, since this area is not really
needed for anything else as the fight progresses.

Due to the tight DPS check of the fight, focusing on and killing any
other waves of Night-Twisted Faithfuls throughout the encounter will not
prove feasible. Instead, they should be off-tanked throughout the fight,
and kept close to Cho'gall so that some of them will eventually die to
collateral damage.

As for handling Cho'gall himself (who becomes active 30 seconds into the
phase), several things must be kept in mind. To begin with, there is no need at
all to perform a tank switch, as there are no abilities that call for this.

As far as positioning is concerned, we recommend that the ranged raid
members and healers stand around the center of the room, and that Cho'gall
be tanked along the outside. Whenever some of the Night-Twisted Faithfuls die
(leaving behind void zones), Cho'gall should be moved along the outside of the
room to a clear location.

One very noticeable aspect of the phase is Cho'gall's Dark Star
ability. When this ball of dark energy appears at the location of a random
raid member, everyone should quickly move away and get at least 25 yards
clear of it before it explodes 5 seconds later.

Probably the most important part of the phase is properly handling
Cho'gall's Enveloping Night ability, which forms an important
synergy with Glimpse of Madness. Whenever Cho'gall creates a shadowy
copy of a raid member, its casts of Gaze of the Abyss will have to
be soaked, until the end of the fight. Failure to do so will cause that shadowy
copy to be detonated for a high amount of Shadow damage each time Enveloping
Night is cast. For this purpose, you will have to assign a rotation, comprised
of raid members who have powerful defensive cooldowns, to soak all of the
casts of Gaze of the Abyss. As the number of shadowy copies increases (since
they are permanent), soaking them will become more and more difficult.

The soakers will have to move so that they are closest to a given shadowy
copy, stay there until they have soaked 4 casts of Gaze of the Abyss, and
then move away. When the Gaze of the Abyss debuff expires, they have to be
at least 8 yards away from other raid members, and they need to use a defensive
cooldown to survive the damage.

This is an activity in which your raid will have to engage until Cho'gall
dies. At certain points, however, soaking all the shadowy copies to prevent
Enveloping Night from detonating them will become impossible, because
your raid will run out of soakers with available defensive cooldowns. It is at
this time that your raid will need to make use of the Entropy shields
generated by Infinite Darkness. When players are debuffed by
Infinite Darkness, healers should place as much healing as they can into them,
ensuring that the raid will obtain a large damage absorption shield. This
shield can then be utilized to absorb the damage of Enveloping Night. So,
for example, if the raid has a large shield, a group of soakers can entirely
give up soaking a given shadowy copy (preventing damage taken on them, and
allowing their defensive cooldowns to recover), and simply letting that
shadowy copy's detonation be absorbed by the Entropy shield.

The end of the fight will be very chaotic, and this phase is definitely
one where Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp should be
used (although, given the length of the fight, it can also be used during
Phase One).

12. Learning the Fight

This is a long and tiresome fight, where the most difficult part comes at
the very end. These encounters are always the most frustrating to progress on,
because your raid will go through many attempts in Phase One or Phase Two,
but by the time they reach Phase Four, they will already be tired and starting
to lose focus.

There is no solution to this other than, as a raid leader, to be
understanding of the strain a fight like this can put on your raid. You can
consider offering more frequent breaks than usual, to allow for your raid
members to restore some of their focus.

When it comes to the mechanics themselves, the first two phases are very
easily accessible and you will no doubt try them many times, meaning that
all raid members will become very well accustomed to how the mechanics work.
One particular mechanic to work on is Arcane Wrath, which requires
assigning some players to it. For obvious reasons, ranged DPS players (Hunters
in particular) are well suited to this task.

In order to progress further in the encounter and see more of the fight,
you can make liberal use of Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp.
For example, if you are struggling with Phase Two, you can just use it then so
that you get to experience the First Transition Phase. Then, when you are more
comfortable with Phase Two mechanics, you can stop using it.

13. Loot

In this section, you will find the loot table for Mar'gok. The section is
divided in 3 subsections: armor, weapons, and the rest (neck, back, finger, and trinket items).